» Jason 'pr1nnyraid' Rosenkrantz Interview

Jason 'pr1nnyraid' Rosenkrantz, 25, is what I call a poker renaissance man.  He is no stranger to playing the highest stakes online, having been the biggest cash game winner on Full Tilt Poker in 2007 for 2.2 million.  He is a founder and executive producer at DeucesCracked, one of the most respected poker training sites.  He is a screen writer.  And now he is about to become a reality TV star.  He and three of his high stakes friends debut this Sunday on G4 at 9 pm ET with their poker reality show '2 Months 2 Million'.  They lived the summer in a massive classic style mansion pursuing their collective dream to make 2 million or die trying.

Welcome to Poker Curious, Jason.  How did this show '2 Months 2 Million' come about?

After graduating from film school in 2006 I was overwhelmed by online poker culture.  Here is a community of extremely smart, talented young people making truckloads of money playing poker, traveling the world, gambling on just about anything, buying expensive clothing, cars and watches.  They wake up whenever they want and answer to no one.  One day they're in Las Vegas playing in the World Series of Poker, the next they're surfing the best waves in the world or climbing a mountain.  And I was in the thick of it.  I wanted to make a long-form documentary about it all.  Through a series of conversations with a buddy from college I was put in touch with Park Slope Productions, and over the next couple of years they developed the project as a reality show about me and my three friends, who'd been living together summer after summer in Las Vegas for the WSOP.  Emil Patel (whitelime), Brian Roberts (flawless_victory), and Ariel Schneller (FoxwoodsFiend).  G4 eventually liked the concept enough to greenlight a pilot, after which Ariel decided the reality TV limelight wasn't for him, and our other close friend and roommate Dani Stern (Ansky) jumped in as G4 ordered a full series, 10 original episodes.

While you are restricted from revealing direct details, describe the overall experience of living the high stakes poker lifestyle in Las Vegas this summer?

Well this is our third summer in Vegas, so we entered the summer thinking we'd done pretty much all the crazy things you could possibly do.  Turns out that when you have a TV network behind you, you can do some REALLY crazy things.  Like suddenly it becomes a great idea to live in a 12,000 square foot mansion...  This summer we spent a lot of time at XS, the new nightclub at Encore... also really enjoyed Cut, one of the steakhouses at the Palazzo... and we went dune buggy racing through the desert.  Among other things I'm not allowed to talk about!

What are some of the highlights from the show that would intrigue poker fans to watch each week?

There is a lot of poker featured (both online and live), and a lot of "poker-speak" flying back and forth between us in the war room each week.  This is a docu-style look into the lives of high stakes online players.  There's nothing else like it out there.  There will also be tons of cameos from guys that poker fans will know... Tom Dwan, David Benyamine, aejones.  A lot to love in here for guys who want to see all that, anyone who's followed Team Israel over the past cpl of years... or anyone just genuinely curious to see what swings are like for us or how we attack this $2 million goal.

How do you feel this show will affect casual poker fan's appreciation of poker?

To be honest, I'm not sure.  It's hard for me to be objective.  I just know that this is the kind of show that I would be absolutely obsessed with when I was in high school or college.  I'm sure some people will say that we're not "real poker players" but we put a lot of work into trying to dispel those notions on the show.  I think it will open people's eyes and put some faces to those avatars playing high stakes poker on Full Tilt and PokerStars every day.

Your own beginning in poker were influenced by the classic poker movie, Rounders.  In a previous interview you explained “I've been playing since I was 12, more or less, online for the past four years-ish. I had never heard of bankroll management and insisted on never folding top pair even if there were four all-ins and I had no money invested and no kicker.” He admits this led to “Busto. Very. Frequently. But I eventually found twoplustwo.com, and lurked for a while. Then I posted for a while and finally realized you could study the game academically. I read a lot, did a lot of out-of-hand work and made my way up through the stakes.”  Was it just self study on twoplustwo or did you have any mentors or coaches that accelerated your journey up the NLHE ranks?

Self-study and playing tons was huge for me.  Coaching many players also helped me in vocalizing and heavily questioning my thought processes.  What really pushed me over the top, though, was living with Emil, and then Brian, Ariel and Dani and talking poker with them every day.  When you're playing super high stakes and selling off action or buying action from other people, there's constant analysis and criticism of every body's play... and that's just such a great way to get better.

You were the most successful high stakes NLHE player in 2007.  How have 2008 and 2009 gone for you? 

2008 was great, until the end of the year when I lost about $1mm of my own money playing RailHeaven (500/1kNL) on Full Tilt.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that the four of us ran worse than we've ever run at poker at those stakes.  So that's particularly brutal, especially when you can't just move down to 200/400 and rebuild.  I had another huge downswing like that the year before, and that summer I won lots, so it wasn't really devastating but it did make me consider playing less poker after all was said and done.  The climate of online poker changed in that it became hard for me to get action on a daily basis, more and more players were exercising careful game selection.  DeucesCracked and other projects were becoming more interesting than sitting and waiting at empty HU tables, so I devoted more time to work and less to poker.  When the show got green lit I realized I had some work to do on my game - tons of players were getting better and mentally, you need to be prepared for playing a session and then maybe not getting any action for a few hours.  So Episode 1 of 2M2MM drops you right into the midst of that for me - trying to figure out what I need to do to climb back up to the top.

How much and what do you play these days?

During the show, I probably played more than anyone else.  I played like 60k hands of high stakes in June.  But I'm moving away from playing as much as I used to.  I've always aspired to be a writer - film, television, theatre... I'm not sure yet. So I'm looking to start doing more in those arenas this year and next.  It's all about the journey!  But as for what I play, 10/20PLO and 25/50 or higher NL.  The higher I play the better the game is, basically.

Are heads up matches still your favorite form of poker?

YES.  There is nothing more fun and more skillful than playing heads up No Limit Holdem', at least for me.

You once said “The edge in tough games is very slim. It really only comes from being able to make incredibly quick adjustments one or two steps ahead of other very strong players. You pretty much have to be able to envision what your opponent looks like, eats for breakfast, what kind of car he drives. It's a strange metaphor but once you're in their shoes it is much easier to find your edge.”  What do you feel about the state of the online high stakes games now and where you fit in it?

The statement still applies.  Tough games just don't run very often anymore.  Strong players tend to stay away from each other more than ever.  Hopefully online poker is regulated in the US.  The poker economy will be much better for it.  Casual players will be able to play with more casual players - they stand much more of a chance in those lineups than at a table filled with professional players.  And for the pros, the games would be much softer and more fun to play again.

What players do you most fear/respect playing and why?

I don't fear anyone.  They have no advantage I don't.  Stinger kicked my ass in the 25/50 PLO ante games, I was pretty in awe of how good he is... but at NL, I will play anyone.  I respect Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond, Phil Ivey of course...  Tom in particular because he plays a style that no one else can replicate against the toughest players and is successful.  I obviously haven't played against my roommates often but they are insanely, insanely good. 

As a poker player, what would you consider as your greatest strength and greatest weakness?

My greatest strength is my hand reading, my psychology.  I'm really good at putting myself in my opponent's heads.  As far as a weakness... I don't play my A game often enough.  I think I put myself on auto-pilot too often sometimes, and that leads to me making some mistakes I shouldn't be.  When I'm on my A game, I can't be stopped.

You are known as part of team Israel and trading lots of action from the high stakes games which have lead to large swings in your bankroll.  How do you handle downswings?

Step one: Order a ton of Chinese food.  Step two: Eat as much as possible.  Step three:  Pass out for a day and a half.  Step four: Grow a beard.  Step five: Disappear into the wilderness for a week.  Step six: Emerge re-energized and ready to crush everyone again.

You've never seemed to prioritize live cash or tournament play.  Why is that?

It's slower.  Less convenient.  I can make more money playing online, basically.  And I'm not really interested in winning bracelets for the "glory" or the "respect."  I already have the respect of people who know poker deeply.  I'll probably be playing more big live cash games in the future though... the big games online aren't running as often and playing for a lot of money with deep stacks... that is interesting.

Whenever I've spoken to you in the past, you are always very proud of what you've accomplished at DeucesCracked  What distinguishes DeucesCracked from other training sites?

I am very proud of what we're doing over at DC.  Firstly, our strategy videos are the most innovative on the market.  Not only are we blending entertainment with poker instruction, we're providing structured learning.  8-episode strategy series that completely cover various topics - transitioning from NL to PLO, learning how to play heads up NL, moving up from small stakes to mid stakes - we've got series on anything you can imagine.  Over the past year and a half we've developed a library of over 1000 videos, most contained within the series model.  So right now, we've got pretty much the most effective resource possible for someone who wants to get better at poker.  We also love our extremely supportive and active community - we've got a Member Videos forum where members can post their own videos for critique and a Secret HQ forum that fosters the development of poker discussion groups.  With integrated discussion between our videos and forums we're constantly challenging pre-existing notions about how poker is meant to be learned.  And most recently, we've got a sweet new video player that not only allows you to make comments on specific time stamps in our videos, it lets you take notes on each video in a pop-up notepad.  No one else has this.  My hat is off to our development team because it's an insanely useful tool for voracious video watchers.

What do you enjoy more, the teaching, the community, or the business management side of DeucesCracked?

I enjoy the community.  I think they're great, everyone is really helpful and loves the site as much as we do.  We're really lucky with our membership in that respect.  I think we've got possibly the most hate-free forums on the Internet!  And I can directly attribute that to the examples set by our instructors and their participation in the forums.  Everyone is really active and supportive.  I also love love love working with smart, creative people.  We'll try anything and it's that attitude that's led to some of the innovations we've made in poker training. 

DeucesCracked has a reputation for innovation in the training site world, what is in store for members in the coming months?

We're going to keep innovating.  Continue to blur the line between videos and strategy posts, continue to develop the optimal path for people to take from beginner to expert.  Everything is on the table.  We truly want to make people better at poker and enjoy their time spent on DeucesCracked.  So everything we do is measured up against that goal. There will be some integration with the TV show, but other than that, expect some sequels to some of our really popular series.  We've also got some marketing initiatives planned.  We're aggressively pursuing some new top players to produce videos for us.  We now have the largest library of high quality poker training videos. With the addition of new top talent, our persistence in quality, and our focus on what our members want to see, we will continue to lead the poker training industry.

What advice would you give to those aspiring to follow in your poker footsteps today?

Get serious about your game and your aspirations.  Set some real, tangible goals and pursue them relentlessly.  Constantly work on how poker fits into your life, also.  You need the right balance, and you need to master the mental side of the game.  Just doggedly playing and analyzing hands is not going to make you tilt less or lead a healthy life off the tables.  Be conscious of all that.  And go all-in a lot.  Good stuff happens sometimes.

Read the Poker Curious review of DeucesCracked HERE